[pʌɪl], (Noun)

Definitions:
- a heap of things laid or lying one on top of another
(e.g: he placed the books in a neat pile)

- a large imposing building or group of buildings
(e.g: a Victorian Gothic pile)

- a series of plates of dissimilar metals laid one on another alternately to produce an electric current

- a nuclear reactor


Phrases:
- make one's pile
- pile arms
- pile it on

Origin:
late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin pila ‘pillar, pier’

[pʌɪl], (Verb)

Definitions:
- place (things) one on top of the other
(e.g: she piled all the groceries on the counter)

- (of a group of people) get into or out of a vehicle or space in a disorganized manner
(e.g: ten of us piled into the minibus)


Phrases:
- make one's pile
- pile arms
- pile it on

Origin:
late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin pila ‘pillar, pier’

[pʌɪl], (Noun)

Definitions:
- a heavy stake or post driven vertically into the bed of a river, soft ground, etc., to support the foundations of a superstructure

- a triangular charge or ordinary formed by two lines meeting at an acute angle, usually pointing down from the top of the shield


Phrases:

Origin:
Old English pīl ‘dart, arrow’, also ‘pointed stake’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch pijl and German Pfeil, from Latin pilum ‘(heavy) javelin’

[pʌɪl], (Verb)

Definitions:
- strengthen or support (a structure) with piles
(e.g: an earlier bridge may have been piled)


Phrases:

Origin:
Old English pīl ‘dart, arrow’, also ‘pointed stake’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch pijl and German Pfeil, from Latin pilum ‘(heavy) javelin’

[pʌɪl], (Noun)

Definitions:
- the soft projecting surface of a carpet or a fabric such as velvet or flannel, consisting of many small threads
(e.g: the thick pile of the new rugs)


Phrases:

Origin:
Middle English (in the sense ‘downy feather’): from Latin pilus ‘hair’. The current sense dates from the mid 16th century